Union Pacific’s Big Boy Rides the Main Line After 51 Years
UNION PACIFIC 4-8-8-4 NO. 4014 took a giant step towards restoration at 2:45 in the morning on January 26, 2014, after UP and Metrolink crews cut the Metrolink main line at
Pomona, Calif., and swung it over to connect with the panel track the 1941 Alco had been resting on since it was removed from the Rail- Giants Train Museum at the Los Angeles Coun-
ty Fairplex in November 2013 (see December 2013 RAILNEWS). Steve Crise was on hand to record the action as No. 4014 moved closer to the UP steam shop in Cheyenne, Wyo., where it will be rebuilt for excursion service. The work is being bankrolled by an anonymous benefactor. In the early evening hours before the big
move, Union Pacific officer Jorge O. Villae- cusa (top) checked out the scene at the tempo- rary resting place of 4014 as she waits for her return to the U.S. rail network for the first time in 52 years. At 9:48 p.m. the last Metrolink train of the evening, No. 354 head- ed for San Bernardino (left), passes the spot where Veolia track crews will cut the rails to swing the track away to make the connection to the panel track the Big Boy rests on. At 10:55, the track crews begin to slice the
south rail of Metrolink’s San Bernardino main line to prepare to slide the track a few feet south to connect the panel track (opposite, top left). With both rails severed, crews gen- tly slid the main line track into position and trimmed the rail to match the panel track where the 4014 waited (opposite, top right). After the Metrolink main was connected to
the panel track, crews dumped ballast and tamped it (opposite, center left). Then at 2:52:58 a.m. on January 26 No. 4014 rolled onto the national rail network for the first time in 52 years (opposite, center right),
22 MARCH 2014 •
RAILFAN.COM
ALL PHOTOS BY STEVE CRISE
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66